Monthly Featured Article (June 2019)

21-Day Habit Creation: The Incredible Power of Habit Forming
Part Three

by Susie J. Briscoe

Part Three

How to Stick to Your New Habits

It’s normal to want everything to remain the same – even though we may desperately want to change ourselves for the better, we remain drawn to the old ways. That’s because we’re getting some type of reward for the habit.

When you smoke, you get the reward of the “nicotine high,” or if you bite your nails, you’re passing time in a way that helps calm you down or simply gives you something to do with your hands. Every habit is based on rewards.

Your new and better habits will also be based on a reward system. It will succeed or fail depending on how you view that reward. Part Three will focus on some strategies that will help you on your quest to set up a system within your thought pattern and your life that can get you through the bad times when you may think of reverting to old habits and the rewards that come with them.

Have a Plan in Place Before Beginning the 21-Day Habit Challenge

Practicing a new habit for 21 days will give you the head start you need to continue implementing the habit into your everyday routine and thought pattern. By the end of the 21-day period, you should know how this new habit formation will change your life.

Before you begin the 21-day challenge of creating a new habit, you should give much thought, time, and effort to the plan and have a system in place to counteract any obstacles you might face.

Here is a step-by-step guide to help you in the formation and implementing of a new habit and how to make it take root.

State and research the habit you want to create. Understanding the habit you want to get rid of and/or the one you want to create means that you should know why it hurts or can help you and to know what rewards you’re getting from it.

It sometimes helps if you have a journal to write down everything you’re thinking and doing to put your new habit into action. Take some time to write down the definition of the habit (in detail) and how the new behaviour is going to change your life.

Know the three components of your new habit – the triggers, the behaviour, and the reward. These three parts of a habit formation are the mainstay of how and why it lives on in your life. Knowing this loop of a habit you want to implement in your life can help you avoid roadblocks you’ll likely encounter and which rewards will make it worth your while.

Take some time to think about what might trigger you to perpetuate your old habits such as smoking. The triggers might be stress, alcohol consumption, drinking caffeine, or hanging around with friends who smoke.

You’ll find that most of your habits have several triggers – and to make the new habit successful, you’ll need to figure out which new triggers might work in a positive way.

Use positive self-talk and actions to combat triggers you want to eliminate. If you’re trying to exercise first thing in the morning, set the alarm clock across the room so you’ll have to get up to turn it off. Self-talk might include affirmations about how much better you’re going to feel and look when you’re toned and fit.

Only you know the triggers that can make you more susceptible to the old habit and which will make you want to carry on with your new plan of success.

Make time for your new habit. Any new habit you go for will take some time out of your schedule. If you plan ahead, you can cut out some time and won’t be so overwhelmed with your “new” responsibility.

We all have ultra-busy schedules these days, but your new habit can make a difference in the way you work and fulfil your responsibilities. The habit may create more time in your life so you’re not so overwhelmed, or it may make you feel better – so you have more energy.

Create triggers that will help you ingrain the new habit. For example, just as having a cup of coffee often triggers the need for a cigarette, you can create a new trigger that will help you substantiate your fledgling habit.

If your new habit is to lose weight by eating healthier, you may want to develop a trigger of drinking a bottle of water 15 minutes before every meal. That will fill you up so you don’t eat as much.

You can have more than one trigger to develop a healthy habit. And, they don’t all have to be monumental. Tiny repetitions of something that will be a cue for you are all you need to be well on your way to establishing a new habit in only 21 days.

Overcome lack of willpower. When it comes to creating a new and lasting habit, lack of willpower is often the worst enemy. You’ll likely have no trouble beginning because you’ll be all fired up about beginning a life changing way to live your life.

The problem begins when something happens to make you want to fall back on your old way of doing things. After all, it’s familiar and easy and probably gives you much more pleasure (in the beginning) than your new habit.

Your habit-changing plan of action needs to deal with lack of willpower before you even begin. Figure out what will keep you on track and help you overcome the lack of willpower that can become an obstacle to your progress.

Reward yourself. There’s nothing like rewards to train dogs and people. If you look toward the reward you’re going to have after completing your habit training, you’ll succeed.

Experiment with some rewards to see what works best for you. You may have to rev it up a notch or two for the reward aspect of the habit loop to work as it should.

Unfortunately, there’s no one formula that works to make a new habit stick. Persistence is the key – and being able to continue after a bout of failure. Almost everyone will have a time where they falter during the 21 days of creating a new habit.

Don’t let a temporary fallback make you quit altogether. Getting back on the horse after you fall off is the only way to keep going and to realize the ultimate success you’re striving for.

Know the Saboteurs

There are saboteurs in every great plan. They may be negative self-talk that your sub-conscious feeds you at a critical time in the habit formation. For example, if you’re trying to lose weight and are craving a donut, you may have thoughts such as, “One donut won’t hurt – I’ll make up for it by not eating dinner.”

If you give in to the negative self-talk and eat the donut, you’ll be breaking the loop of the habit creation process by choosing a trigger that isn’t part of your plan to lose weight and eat healthier. The self-talk was the saboteur that made you vulnerable.

Your own family and friends may be saboteurs in your efforts to create and keep good habits. If you’re trying to quit smoking and hang around people who smoke, it’s going to be much more difficult to break that habit. The key is to create new ways to spend your time or to be sure you inform those around you how important it is to you to quit smoking.

As much as you try to plan ahead so you can ward off any saboteurs that might keep you from your habit goal, they are bound to happen. Spend some time in the planning stages of creating a new habit thinking of things that might occur and how you might be able to resist the saboteur effectively.

The Habit-Driven Life

In many ways, habits are what drive us to become successful – or not. When you have the tools you need to develop good habits, it’s much more likely that you’ll make things happen in your life that will lead you to the success you desire.

If you want to be an electrical engineer, a habit you might want to develop would be study time. That study time might replace an old habit such as watching television in the evening. That’s a big pull that you’re going to have to overcome if you want to become an electrical engineer.

Success in anything requires that we go above and beyond what the normal person would to create habits that will help us get ahead. Changing your habits can be difficult. They’re ingrained in all of our senses and our subconscious minds, making them difficult to obtain power over.

You may look at some people with habits you consider strange or as persons who live abnormal lives. Getting up before dawn to run for a couple of hours before getting showered and dressed for work may seem like an unusual habit to you.

But, observe the person who has developed the habit of running before work. He or she is likely fit and toned and seems to find time for everything life throws at them. Running is a habit that keeps them healthy and fit and they’ve learned to turn it into a motivating habit.

A habit-driven life can be exhilarating or boring, depending on the habits you choose and the rewards you reap from them. You can either live a life of habits that keep you unhealthy and in the background or habits that boost your health and longevity and lead you to personal and business success.

Habits are choices that you make every day – sometimes hundreds of times a day. You’ll face obstacles, such as the smell of that favourite fast food place when you’re trying to lose weight – or sore muscles when you need to get up and exercise in the morning.

It’s up to you to choose the habits that will carry you to the pinnacle of health and success. Hopefully, this guide will spur you on to learn more about changing your bad habits to good ones or creating habits in your life that will serve you well.

Main Learning Points of Part Three

How to Stick to Your New Habits

All the planning and mind-searching have been relatively easy up until this point. Now, you’ve got to make sure you stick to the plan and put your new habit firmly in place.

It may not be easy, but this part of the guide should have given you some great insight into how to keep the habit going. Among the high points of Part Three are the following:

Know the habit you want to establish -- inside and out. You know you desire the behaviour pattern you’re about to establish, but unless you fully consider the rewards you’re getting from the old habit and the results of establishing the new habit, it’s difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Learn about the three components in the new habit. The three parts of every habit are the trigger, the behaviour, and the reward. You’ll want to write down what triggers the old habit and create new ones to combat them. Also, what is your behaviour going to look like with the new habit pattern – and, what rewards will you reap from establishing that habit?
Set aside time in your schedule to develop the new habit. Besides taking planning and willpower, a new habit takes time to establish. Set aside some extra time in your life for the habit pattern to take hold. You’ll have much less chance of failing if you’re not overwhelmed.
Overcome lack of willpower. Our old habits are sometimes so controlling that we risk them overwhelming our willpower and taking over – even when we struggle to keep going. Planning what you will do in case a lack of willpower occurs is essential to succeeding in the formation of the new habit.
Rewards make a difference. With the establishment of every new and better habit, a reward is present. When you reward yourself for each step you take in the formation and continuation of a new habit, you’re ensuring that the habit is strong and will succeed.
Know the saboteurs in your life. Saboteurs can come in the form of negative self-talk, people who don’t understand your need to create a more positive habit, or triggers such as a television show that beckons you to watch rather than study for an important final.

Don’t forget to share with me what you discovered during this month and let me know if I may share it within this newsletter next month.